The Prime Video series Blade Runner 2099 will explore the evolution of the world audiences first encountered in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, released in 1982 but set in 2019. In that film, humans were still the dominant species, very much interested in keeping synthetic humans, or “replicants,” under tight control. Denis Villeneuve’s 2017 sequel Blade Runner 2049 saw the balance of power starting to shift—but only a little. But as we’ll see in Blade Runner 2099, there’s been a complete and probably inevitable reversal: replicants are now in charge following a robot uprising.
This dynamic will play out in close quarters between the show’s main characters: Olwen, a replicant blade runner nearing the end of her life, played by Michelle Yeoh, and Cora, a human masquerading as a replicant, played by Hunter Schafer.
“The show continues asking the same questions that the original and 2049 asked and delving into the relationship between humans and machines and where those lines get blurry,” Schafer explained in a new Entertainment Weekly profile. “So it definitely holds onto those core questions that Blade Runner asks while sort of flipping some of the other concepts we were familiar with on their head.”
However, she added, “I think it’s ultimately about a relationship between Cora and Olwen … They’re both looking for something, but on two completely different sides and experiences of life. And they have more in common with each other than they think.”
Both Schafer and Yeoh pointed to the strong bond they formed in real life as an important part of bringing their on-screen partnership to life. “It’s hard work. It’s physical,” Yeoh said. “There are a lot of things happening. But we make everyone laugh. So we actually ended up having a lot of fun. It’s very emotional, so sometimes we don’t even know why we are laughing, but we are.”
Blade Runner 2099 premieres November 25 on Prime Video.
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